NAME

group − group file

DESCRIPTION

The file /etc/group contains for each group the following information:

group name
encrypted password
numerical group ID
comma-separated list of all users allowed in the group

group is an ASCII file.  The fields are separated by colons; each group is separated from the next by a new-line. 

Because of the encrypted passwords, the group file can and does have general read permission and can be used, for example, to map numerical group IDs to names. 

During user identification and authentication, the supplementary group access list is initialized sequentially from information in this file.  If a user is in more groups than the system is configured for, {NGROUPS_MAX}, a warning will be given and subsequent group specifications will be ignored. 

SEE ALSO

groups(1), newgrp(1M), passwd(1), getgroups(2), initgroups(3C), unistd(4).